Cody Hamman takes a trip back to 1987's Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise for Film Appreciation.
Earlier this year, I revisited a childhood favorite, the 1984 comedy Revenge of the Nerds, under sad circumstances, as Nerds franchise star Robert Carradine passed away this past February. Now, I’ve gone back to the sequel Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise under similar circumstances, as news just broke this week that another Nerds legend, Donald Gibb, passed away on May 12.
Gibb played towering jock Frederick “Ogre” Palowaski in the original film and returned for two of the three sequels – and since Revenge of the Nerds II features his character’s redemption story, it’s fitting that this is the one I watched after his passing.
Revenge of the Nerds was sent out into the world by 20th Century Fox, and at the time, the studio had one of the only bosses in Hollywood history that was anti-sequel. That’s why Fox didn’t strike while the iron was hot and get a sequel into development immediately after Nerds proved to be a box office hit. But when Leonard Goldberg took control of Fox in 1987, one of the first things he did was greenlight a sequel to Revenge of the Nerds, calling the decision “a no-brainer.”
It was a no-brainer, but assembling the sequel wasn’t an easy task. Nerds director Jeff Kanew was outspokenly anti-sequel, saying, “It's done, the nerds won. What are you going to do? Have them win again?” Which... yeah. That’s what sequels are all about. Action franchises in particular exist because audiences like watching the same characters win over and over again. But Kanew wasn’t into it. That’s why he didn’t direct the sequel, if he was even offered the chance.
The original writers were also not brought back. Joe Roth – who would soon become the chairman of Fox – was hired to direct Revenge of the Nerds II from a script from sitcom writers Dan Guntzelman and Steve Marshall, who figured that the ideal story for a sequel would be to follow our nerd heroes on a vacation to some idyllic location, which is how we get the “Nerds in Paradise” concept. The original idea was to set the story in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, but it was decided that Fort Lauderdale, Florida would be faster and cheaper.
Then, another hurdle to clear: getting the nerd cast back together. Robert Carradine agreed to reprise the role of lead character Lewis Skolnick, with Larry B. Scott returning as flamboyant Lamar Latrelle, Timothy Busfield as near-sighted Arnold Poindexter, and Andrew Cassese as child prodigy Harold Wormser. Anthony Edwards didn’t like the script, so he asked for his role to be reduced considerably – that’s why his character Gilbert Lowe has to skip the trip to Fort Lauderdale because he broke his leg playing chess. Edwards didn’t want to go to Florida. The producers didn’t mind downplaying Gilbert because they felt he was the least funny character in the first movie movie anyway. (And I would agree.)
Brian Tochi couldn’t come back to play Toshiro Takashi because he was busy working on the Police Academy franchise. Julia Montgomery was asked to reprise the role of Lewis’s cheerleader girlfriend Betty Childs, but turned the offer down when she found out that she would only be making a cameo for a scene where Betty is shown cheating on Lewis with a jock. She didn’t believe that Betty would do such a thing. The writers had Betty cheat on Lewis so he could have a new love interest in this story – but since Montgomery opted out, Lewis mentions having a girlfriend and has a picture of Betty in his suitcase, but he also develops a crush on a girl he crosses paths with in Florida, intelligent hotel receptionist Sunny Carstairs (Courtney Thorne-Smith). It’s up to viewers to decide whether the way Lewis handles the Sunny situation makes him come off as a jerk, but he definitely crosses a line.
The production almost ran into disaster when Curtis Armstrong refused to come back as Dudley “Booger” Dawson because he also didn’t like the script. He turned down multiple offers from the studio with pay increases and also ignored the pleas of Carradine, who was considered that the project would collapse around him with both Edwards and Armstrong objecting to it, to different degrees. Then a Fox executive told Armstrong that Larry Gelbart, creator and producer of the TV series M*A*S*H, was coming on board as a script doctor. That got Armstrong to sign on... but it wasn’t true. Gelbart wasn’t involved with this movie.
To be fair to the actors who were uncertain about coming back, the script for Revenge of the Nerds II isn’t nearly as good as the first one. The sequel isn’t as funny as its predecessor. But I’ve always been a fan of Nerds in Paradise, and throughout my childhood I probably watched it just as much as the first movie, if not more. There were cable airings to watch and VHS rentals, and I got the impression that my older brother liked the sequel more than the first movie, as he seemed to seek it out more often.
When I think of the nerds, this film’s lineup are the characters I have in mind.
The film begins with Lewis, Booger, Lamar, Poindexter, and Wormser heading to Fort Lauderdale to attend the United Fraternity Conference as representatives of their frat, Lambda Lambda Lambda. Since defeating the jock frat Alpha Beta in the first movie, they’ve been having a good time on the Adams College campus... but once they reach Fort Lauderdale, their good times fall apart, as representatives of the Alpha Betas – led by local president Roger Latimer (Bradley Whitford) and joined by Gibb’s character Ogre – start picking on them all over again.
Bradley Whitford has done a lot of work. He has 150 credits to his name and has won multiple Emmy awards, but to me he will always be the douchebag from Revenge of the Nerds II.
The nerds are booked for a stay in the luxurious Royal Flamingo Hotel, where Sunny works as a receptionist and there’s a bullied bellboy named Stewart (Barry Sobel). But hotel manager Buzz (Ed Lauter) is anti-nerd, so he sides with the Alpha Betas and has the nerds ejected from his hotel. They end up having to stay in a run-down, dangerous dump called the Hotel Coral Essex... so named just because there’s a scene later in the film where letters on the neon sign are turned off so it can read “Hot Oral Sex.”
The Alpha Betas take every opportunity to mess with the Tri-Lambs and humiliate them in public, and even scheme to get their frat shut down, either by making the nerds look like criminals or by introduction a proposition that would require frat members to meet both academic and physical standards, since the nerds wouldn’t meet athletic physical standards. When all else fails, the Alpha Betas go so far as to kidnap the Tri-Lambs and dump them on a deserted island so they’ll miss the conference. Sunny chooses to join them on the island – and when Ogre says he’s going to brag to everyone that he helped ditch the nerds, the Alpha Betas dump him on the island as well to keep their secret. That’s when Ogre’s redemption story begins. While stuck on the island with the Tri-Lambs, he bonds with the nerds and plots revenge against the Alpha Betas alongside them.
Along the way, the nerds put on another musical performance, since there was a memorable one in the first movie, go to jail, smoke some weed, get tricked by a fake “virgin sacrifice” ritual, and even get to drive an amphibious tank. There’s also a subplot in which the filthy, disgusting Booger finds a mentor in the filthy disgusting Snotty (James Hong), who teaches him to enhance his burping and phlegm-spitting techniques. (“To truly hock a loogie, one must not retrieve the phlegm from the throat, but from the soul.”)
Revenge of the Nerds II is a step down from its predecessor, but there’s still plenty of fun packed into its 89 minutes, and it’s always nice to spend time with Lewis, Booger, Ogre, and the other characters. I have watched this movie many times over the decades and there are, hopefully, many more viewings ahead of me. There will be a bittersweet edge to them now that we’ve lost Robert Carradine and Donald Gibb, but it will be good to see them again every time I revisit Nerds in Paradise.
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